Safety ski harness cable system

ABSTRACT

A safety harness cable system to protect a skier from injury while learning the art of skiing. A harness attached about a skier is fastened to a pulley which rides on the cable system suspended above the ski run. The cable system is fitted with a brake mechanism at the end of the run to retard the skier&#39;&#39;s forward motion.

nited States Patent Massa Jan. 21, 1975 SAFETY SKI HARNESS CABLE SYSTEM Inventor: Michael J. Massa, 1718 48th St.,

New York, NY. 11204 Filed: Oct. 5, 1973 Appl. N0.: 403,947

US. Cl. 104/113, 272/57 B, 104/69, 280/1 1.37 R

Int. Cl E0lb 25/14 Field of Search 280/1 1.37 R; 272/57 B; 104/53, 62, 69, 70, 112, 113

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5/1932 Thiel 104/123 3,408,067 10/1968 Armstrong ..272/57B Primary Examiner-M. Henson Wood, Jr. Assistant ExaminerD. W. Keen Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Howard l. Podell [57] ABSTRACT A safety harness cable system to protect a skier from injury while learning the art of skiing. A harness attached about a skier is fastened to a pulley which rides on the cable system suspended above the ski run. The cable system is fitted with a brake mechanism at the end of the run to retard the skiers forward motion.

2 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures 1 SAFETY SKI HARNESS CABLE SYSTEM SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION My invention is a safety harness and cable system which enables a new skier, attached by the harness to a pulley-cable system, to descend a slope safely and which retards his progress to a gradual and safe stop at the end of the run.

A major advantage of my invention is that an untrained skier is protected from injury and can ski with ease of mind.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The objects and features of the invention may be understood with reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment of the invention, taken together with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of the invention, in use, with an attached skier in mid-run;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the invention in use with an attached skier approaching the end of the run;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the invention in use with the attached skier in the retard section of the apparatus;

FIG. 4 is a detail side view of the braking mechanism taken along lines 4-4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an end view of the braking mechanism taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a side view of the apparatus, with the attached skier at the release end.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Turning now descriptively to the drawings, in which similar reference characters denote similar elements throughout the several views, FIGS. l3 and FIG. 6 illustrate the ski-run cable system 10. A cable 11 is suspended on towers 23A, 23B and 23C over a sloping ski run 25, with one end of the cable 11 fixed to the top 12 of tower 23A at the start of the run and the other end of the cable 11 fixed to the drum 14 of a winch at the end of the run.

The skier 16 is fastened into a harness (not shown) which is fastened to the end of a suspension rope 24 fastened to a pulley 17 which rides on cable 11.

Cable 11 is supported by a pulley 28 mounted to the top of tower 238 which is located at the entrance to the retard section 31 of the system and a pulley mounted to the top of the tower 23C at the end of the run, with cable 11 passing about pulley 15 and running to a winch drum l4.

Pulley 28 on tower 23B is mounted so that pulley 17 of the suspension rope may freely ride on cable 11 over pulley 28. As shown in FIGS. 45, a bracket 34 is fitted to pulley 17 and loosely about cable 11 so as to ride ahead of pulley l7 and engage trigger l8 pivotably mounted on tower 36, ahead of retard section 31, to frictionally engage retard flippers 26 in the retard section 31, and to engage trigger 22 at the end of the retard section 31.

As shown in FIG. 1, the cable 11 is pulled taut at the start of the skiers run and until the skier 16 reaches trigger 18. As shown in FIG. 2, the cable tension is slackened by rotation of winch drum 14 to the position of cable 11A shown in FIG. 2, from the taut position of cable 11 shown in dotted lines, when the bracket 34 of pulley 17 hits trigger 18 on tower 36 at the foot of the slope of ski run 25.

Trigger I8 is joined by cable 38 to the winch control mechanism (not shown). Slackening of cable 11 is accompanied by movement of cable 20 which is also wound at its end about winch drum 14, so as to move attached flippers 26 into position to each hit pulley l7 and attached bracket 34 as the skier 16 passes through retard section 31, and to slow his progress.

After passing through retard section 31, pulley bracket 34 hits trigger 22 which is fastened by cable 21 to the winch control mechanism so as to activate winch drum 14 to rotate and tighten cable 11 to the initial taut position shown in solid lines in FIG. 6 from the slack position indicated by dotted lines 11A.

Each brake flipper 26 is fixed by bolts 41 to a pulley 39 which is frictionally engaged to cable 20. An individual tension spring 27 serves to maintain each flipper 26 in a horizontal plane shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 when cable 20 is slack, with tightening of cable 20 by winch drum 14 rotating pulleys 39 so as to move brake flippers 26 into a vertical plane where they may engage pulley 17 of the skier, and act to retard the forward progress of the skier 16. Each brake flipper 26 and attached pulley 39 can individually rotate, when struck by a moving pulley 17 since flipper pulley 39 is in frictional engagement with cable 20. The free end of each flipper 26 is formed in the shape of a double fork 43 that rides on the top of cable 11.

Since obvious changes may be made in the specific embodiment of the invention described herein, such modifications being within the spirit and scope of the invention claimed, it is indicated that all matter contained herein is intended as illustrative and not as limiting in scope.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A cable suspension system for guiding and protecting a skier, attached by a harness and suspension rope to the apparatus, comprising a suspension cable mounted on towers along the length of a ski run, with the suspension rope attached to the harness of the skier and fastened by a pulley to the said suspension cable, with the apparatus fitted with a retard means for slowing the forward progress of an attached skier at the end of the run, in which the suspension system is maintained in a taut condition by winch drum means.

2. The combination as recited in claim I in which the retard means is actuated by operation of the winch drum means to slacken the cable. 

1. A cable suspension system for guiding and protecting a skier, attached by a harness and suspension rope to the apparatus, comprising a suspension cable mounted on towers along the length of a ski run, with the suspension rope attached to the harness of the skier and fastened by a pulley to the said suspension cable, with the apparatus fitted with a retard means for slowing the forward progress of an attached skier at the end of the run, in which the suspension system is maintained in a taut condition by winch drum means.
 2. The combination as recited in claim 1 in which the retard means is actuated by operation of the winch drum means to slacken the cable. 